[Benny4real]

Name: Owhondah Ugochi Benedicta
Anchor: Dr Mrs Iyowuna Okari
Course Title: Servanthood
Question:
Can a person outgrow service? How can a leader who has grown in the ranks in church or in an organization still be able to serve?
Service is never outgrown. The topmost leaders should be the greatest servants of all. As a leader who has grown in rank in a church or organisation he or she must have shown successful servanthood. The way to continue to serve is to maintain servanthood.
Luke 16:10a says He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, verse 12 says And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?
This means that a great leader is a successful servant. One who was given the opportunity to serve and was found faithful in what was least, according to the scripture, he or she is promoted to the next rung of the ladder and keeps progressing. Therefore every great leader knows that faithfulness in service runs through all stages and phases, i.e service is a continuous process infact the higher you go the more you serve. There is a popular saying “With great power comes great responsibility”. A great leader is first a servant, once a leader has this as an inner disposition then their actions will naturally align. Using Paul as a case study in Titus 1:1 Paul was one of the greatest apostles to walk the face of the earth, as a matter of fact he wrote most of the books in the New Testament, yet he called himself a bondservant of God. Therefore his apostleship was only as credible as his servanthood, he didn’t attribute his success to his achievements rather he attributed it to his servanthood.
Using Jesus as a case study, when he washed the feet of his disciples in John 13:4-16. When Jesus was about washing the feet of his disciples Peter said to him in verse 8, “You shall never wash my feet” this was Peter playing the part of a servant and seeing Jesus as his master refused to allow him wash his feet because the feet is considered as filthy and only servants should wash the feet of others, yet Jesus who was God himself washed the feet of his disciples to show them that true leadership is in servanthood.
In verse 14 He said, if I then your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
This is to say that a true leader, leads by example. You want the people you lead to follow, then you must set the pace, you must show them your willingness to serve this is the idea of Servant-leadership.
In verse 16a He said, most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.
This is to say that as a leader you are still a servant to whoever sent you and you should maintain your servanthood. Everyone is a servant to another and therefore no one should be seen as less than the other. Before one becomes a “Servant-leader”, he must have shown trustworthy personal service to someone, this is the idea of “Servant-follower”.
Servanthood is the time-tested entrance prerequisite for trustworthy leadership. God’s word reveals this service as the basis for advancement in leadership and examples abound in the bible from Moses serving Jethro, to Joshua serving Moses and much more.
If a leader has grown in ranks and wants to continue service rightly he or she should look out for people who served successfully and learn the principles they lived by. For example in a Bible believing church, a leader can look up to those of higher ranks and even look into the bible for examples of successful service and those in an organisation can look up to their superiors for advice and read books on leadership.
In conclusion, It takes greatness to become a servant and it takes servanthood to remain a great man. So to continue growing in rank, you must maintain an attitude of servanthood.

[Benny4real]

REPLY to Wechie
Spiritual death brought about a separation from God indeed. God is a God of love, patience and forgiveness but that does not mean that He can be taken for granted. God’s love for mankind is one that can never be fully understood. Man was the highlight of God’s creation because He has a direct relationship with man. God who is 100% man and 100% God saw it not robbery to create man in his image and likeness. Even in man’s sin, God had a plan for His redemption. Spiritual death, took all that God had planned out for man and replaced it with guilt and condemnation. This was the enemies best bet because he knew that there was nothing he could do to change God’s mind towards man so he changed man’s view of God and himself. Man became afraid of his maker and hid himself from God’s presence. God who knows all things, knew that man had sinned but still wanted to give him a second chance.
Physical death was as a result of spiritual death. The flesh became subject to the laws of life and death because they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Man was already a prey of the devil but then they became victims of his evil nature because of disobedience.

[Benny4real]

REPLY to Ezeonugo
These points you highlighted are key points because they are part of the many reasons why churches have not been successful when it comes to Evangelism and Follow Up. I believe that bible believing churches should teach their members what evangelism is not because ignorance may be a reason but it is not an excuse.
In your second point, you said the Christian life is not meant to bring people into a life of spiritual bondage but you are set free from bondage and you have liberty in Christ. Indeed, as believers we are broken lose from bondage. This bondage is in the spirit but not just the spirit, but also Bondage in our minds, I believe a lot of Christians and churches are still in bondage because their minds haven’t been opened yet to sincere truth of the word of God. They are supposed to be free by grace but they are bound by religion and false doctrines.
Condemnation is also a major set-back to true evangelism because it creates a Holier than thou mindset. Where the believer or church in question sees himself/herself/themselves as being too “righteous” and others as being too filthy. They forget that we are saved by grace and not by works that any man should boast. Our righteousness is not of ourselves but purely by the grace and gift of Jesus Christ. When they know this and also know that evangelism is the heartbeat of the Father God, then it becomes easier.

[Benny4real]

Name: Owhondah Ugochi Benedicta
Course Title: Evangelism and Follow-up
Course Code: EF-108-LC
Anchor: Rev Joe Uwareme
Explain at least three(3) things being done by today’s contemporary church that are not true evangelism.

1) Marketing of the local church:
Evangelism is not limited to a ministry, local church or evangelist. No church is designed for evangelism in a particular area. Evangelism should be a collective effort of believer’s and not a means of marketing a local church. According to Rev Joe Uwareme, Evangelism is a concerted self-conscious effort to confront the unbelievers with the truth about claims of Christ with the view of leading them to repentance and not an opportunity to tell them about your local church and it’s practices. They have the right to choose a local church for themselves. You can only make suggestions but that is all. Therefore when approaching an unbeliever, the primary focus should be spreading the good news and not marketing the local church. If questions are asked about the local church they can be answered but the discussion should be centered around the Love of Christ.
2) Bullying, Coercion or convincing people to believe :
This is not evangelism. Some churches go around with their members shouting “Repent or die” Using death as a means of coercing people to accept the Gospel even if they don’t want to at that moment. That’s trying to do the work of the Holy spirit. As a believer, you should be confident in who you are but still give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to do his job which is conviction. You don’t coerce people to believe the good news, you pray for them to accept the message you’re bringing to them. Like 1cor 3:6 Says “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase
3) A means of Condemning unbelievers:
Self-righteousness has been a set back to the body of Christ. Some believer’s and local churches see themselves as holy and see others as filthy and therefore go around saying “Repent or Die” in the name of “Evangelism’. As believer’s we know that evangelism is reaching people with the “Good news” and not “the poison” The emphasis in evangelism should be the love of God from John 3:16 and how God reconciled the world unto Himself. Because Christ came for the sinners according to “Matthew 9:13 where Jesus said “For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance”. Leading people to repentance jas to do with confronting them and not Condemning them.
4) Critique of other religions, other churches and other church leaders:
“Evangelism” is now used as a means of creating division in the body of Christ. Believer’s in ministries go around with megaphones speaking ill of preachers and other churches, making evangelism seem like a competition instead of a privilege given to every believer. Evangelism is our heavenly mandate and is targeted at unbelievers and not believer’s in the wrong. You pray for those who you feel are using wrong methods but so not criticize the body of Christ.
5) An activity instead of a way of life:
Evangelism is not just the task of the church but the very nature of the church. This should be taught in every local church. Evangelism is the individual and yet collective responsibility of every believer.
Some contemporary churches make evangelism an activity by limiting their members to certain days of the week where they can move around for evangelism instead of making them know that you evangelize everyday. Either by the actions you take, by the things you say and the places you find yourself. Asides walking up to people and telling them the good news. You should live the good news. As believer’s we should always know that opportunities abound around us to spread the Gospel everyday.

[Benny4real]

Name: Owhondah Ugochi Benedicta
Course Title: Evangelism and Follow-up
Course Code: EF-108-LC
Anchor: Rev Joe Uwareme
Explain at least three(3) things being done by today’s contemporary church that are not true evangelism.

1) Marketing of the local church:
Evangelism is not limited to a ministry, local church or evangelist. No church is designed for evangelism in a particular area. Evangelism should be a collective effort of believer’s and not a means of marketing a local church. According to Rev Joe Uwareme, Evangelism is a concerted self-conscious effort to confront the unbelievers with the truth about claims of Christ with the view of leading them to repentance and not an opportunity to tell them about your local church and it’s practices. They have the right to choose a local church for themselves. You can only make suggestions but that is all. Therefore when approaching an unbeliever, the primary focus should be spreading the good news and not marketing the local church. If questions are asked about the local church they can be answered but the discussion should be centered around the Love of Christ.
2) Bullying, Coercion or convincing people to believe :
This is not evangelism. Some churches go around with their members shouting “Repent or die” Using death as a means of coercing people to accept the Gospel even if they don’t want to at that moment. That’s trying to do the work of the Holy spirit. As a believer, you should be confident in who you are but still give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to do his job which is conviction. You don’t coerce people to believe the good news, you pray for them to accept the message you’re bringing to them. Like 1cor 3:6 Says “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase
3) A means of Condemning unbelievers:
Self-righteousness has been a set back to the body of Christ. Some believer’s and local churches see themselves as holy and see others as filthy and therefore go around saying “Repent or Die” in the name of “Evangelism’. As believer’s we know that evangelism is reaching people with the “Good news” and not “the poison” The emphasis in evangelism should be the love of God from John 3:16 and how God reconciled the world unto Himself. Because Christ came for the sinners according to “Matthew 9:13 where Jesus said “For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance”. Leading people to repentance jas to do with confronting them and not Condemning them.
4) Critique of other religions, other churches and other church leaders:
“Evangelism” is now used as a means of creating division in the body of Christ. Believer’s in ministries go around with megaphones speaking ill of preachers and other churches, making evangelism seem like a competition instead of a privilege given to every believer. Evangelism is our heavenly mandate and is targeted at unbelievers and not believer’s in the wrong. You pray for those who you feel are using wrong methods but so not criticize the body of Christ.
5) An activity instead of a way of life:
Evangelism is not just the task of the church but the very nature of the church. This should be taught in every local church. Evangelism is the individual and yet collective responsibility of every believer.
Some contemporary churches make evangelism an activity by limiting their members to certain days of the week where they can move around for evangelism instead of making them know that you evangelize everyday. Either by the actions you take, by the things you say and the places you find yourself. Asides walking up to people and telling them the good news. You should live the good news. As believer’s we should always know that opportunities abound around us to spread the Gospel everyday.

[Benny4real]

n man fell, there were many effects, but here are three (3) of those effects ;
1) Broken Fellowship / Separation from GOD because of the inability to stand in God’s presence without a sense of condemnation (Guilt) because of sin consciousness: From the very beginning, it was the plan of the enemy to make man sin because he was jealous of how much God loved man and this was the only way he could try to make man not “come boldly” into the presence of God. In Gen 3:8, “And they heard the sound of the LORD GOD walking in the garden in the cool of the day” The word heard here is the Hebrew word Shama which means to discern, perceive e.t.c. This means that even after they had sinned, they could still perceive the presence of GOD. This is to say that the problem here was not just sin but the consciousness of sin. It’s clearly seen that God’s relationship with man was a very intimate one before the Fall. Because He would come down from His throne to be with them on the earth to fellowship with them directly. Therefore, they were no strangers to the presence of GOD because even in sin they were still in the presence of GOD verse 8b says they “hid themselves from the presence of the LORD GOD among the trees of the garden”. GOD’S presence was always with them but immediately they sinned, they became sin conscious and were therefore afraid in the presence of GOD. In verse 9 it says, “Then the LORD GOD called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself”. The fall of man (Adam) was the first sin to ever be committed by a man. GOD was not asking out of ignorance, because he knows everything. But rather as a parent would demand of a child to see if he would come boldly to the throne of mercy and ask for forgiveness or try to cover their sin. Therefore GOD gave Adam an opportunity to confess but he was too sin conscious to realise that his Father was approachable. This guilt made them feel unworthy in the presence of GOD. GOD asked Adam questions like a Father who has a good relationship with their child would, but sin consciousness had taken them so far away from the presence of their Father. This sin consciousness created a separation between man and GOD, therefore breaking the fellowship GOD had with man.
2). The loss of Dominion: In Genesis 2:26, “Then God said, let Us make man in our image, according to our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth”. God’s first plan for man was that of Dominion according to the scripture above. Yet because of man’s disobedience to God and submission to the serpent, he forfeited his rule to the serpent. The domain originally delegated to man now falls to satan. There is a continual line of evil offsprings extending in satan’s rule. In Genesis 3:15 It says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed” The word seed is the Hebrew word Zera which could be translated as carnal. Therefore carnality was going to spread on the earth because of man’s disobedience and satan’s rule. Everything under man’s rule was put under a curse as his relationship with God was severed.
3) Spiritual death that translated into physical death: In Genesis 3:2 It says, “And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it lest you die’ “. Man died spiritually when they sinned against God. When man was created they were more conscious and aware of the spiritual realm than the physical realm. According to Genesis 3:7 it says, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked;” Adam and Eve were not “blind” literally. But their physical senses were as good as dead. Therefore this means that their spiritual eyes were in control of all they saw and not their physical eyes because according to Gen 2:25, It says “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed”. This is to say that when they sinned, their five senses came alive and they realized that they were flesh and blood and that they were subject to the laws of life and death. God sent them out of the garden because He no longer trusted them with the trees of the garden, according to Genesis 3:22 “Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever “. They knew good and evil. Therefore they died spiritually.

[Benny4real]

Service is never outgrown. The topmost leaders should be the greatest servants of all. As a leader who has grown in rank in a church or organisation he or she must have shown successful servanthood. The way to continue to serve is to maintain servanthood.
Luke 16:10a says He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, verse 12 says And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?
This means that a great leader is a successful servant. One who was given the opportunity to serve and was found faithful in what was least, according to the scripture, he or she is promoted to the next rung of the ladder and keeps progressing. Therefore every great leader knows that faithfulness in service runs through all stages and phases, i.e service is a continuous process infact the higher you go the more you serve. There is a popular saying “With great power comes great responsibility”. A great leader is first a servant, once a leader has this as an inner disposition then their actions will naturally align. Using Paul as a case study in Titus 1:1 Paul was one of the greatest apostles to walk the face of the earth, as a matter of fact he wrote most of the books in the New Testament, yet he called himself a bondservant of God. Therefore his apostleship was only as credible as his servanthood, he didn’t attribute his success to his achievements rather he attributed it to his servanthood.
Using Jesus as a case study, when he washed the feet of his disciples in John 13:4-16. When Jesus was about washing the feet of his disciples Peter said to him in verse 8, “You shall never wash my feet” this was Peter playing the part of a servant and seeing Jesus as his master refused to allow him wash his feet because the feet is considered as filthy and only servants should wash the feet of others, yet Jesus who was God himself washed the feet of his disciples to show them that true leadership is in servanthood.
In verse 14 He said, if I then your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
This is to say that a true leader, leads by example. You want the people you lead to follow, then you must set the pace, you must show them your willingness to serve this is the idea of Servant-leadership.
In verse 16a He said, most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.
This is to say that as a leader you are still a servant to whoever sent you and you should maintain your servanthood. Everyone is a servant to another and therefore no one should be seen as less than the other. Before one becomes a “Servant-leader”, he must have shown trustworthy personal service to someone, this is the idea of “Servant-follower”.
Servanthood is the time-tested entrance prerequisite for trustworthy leadership. God’s word reveals this service as the basis for advancement in leadership and examples abound in the bible from Moses serving Jethro, to Joshua serving Moses and much more.
If a leader has grown in ranks and wants to continue service rightly he or she should look out for people who served successfully and learn the principles they lived by. For example in a Bible believing church, a leader can look up to those of higher ranks and even look into the bible for examples of successful service and those in an organisation can look up to their superiors for advice and read books on leadership.
In conclusion, It takes greatness to become a servant and it takes servanthood to remain a great man. So to continue growing in rank, you must maintain an attitude of servanthood.

[Author]

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